I’ve been getting back into social media a bit and that’s been fun…starting to see more posts about what people are doing in their lives, which was the whole point of Facebook et. al., IMO. There’s a little more “ad” content or stuff shared from content creators across all platforms, but it’s mostly entertaining so I don’t mind. I’m noticing that hateful/angry posts are significantly reduced as well, which is a nice change.
I mentioned that I’ve been playing around with some creative ideas, and I’m sharing one of them now:
January River
I want to make things. Art stuff. Music, fiction, painting, photography, poetry, spoken word, whatever. I want an outlet for my creativity. I want to create, not just consume. And I want people to consume my stuff and hopefully like it or find it worthwhile.
So that’s why I created January-River.net. It’s separate from this site because I wanted a little separation from who I am and what I do personally and professionally as Mark Dalius, and to maintain some privacy as I try to promote my stuff. I’m talking about it and linking to it from here because I’m hoping that people I know as Mark will go there and check it out. (I won’t be doing the reverse.)
I’ve also created social media accounts for January River on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. While a lot of what I’m creating is written, I’ve been posting readings as Reels or other video content. So if I friend or follow you as January River, or if you see posts from January, that’s why. It’s the same type of stuff you’d have seen created and promoted by Mark Dalius in the past, so I hope you won’t mind.
Also: no, the plan is not to create things that are controversial or potentially offensive. And no, it’s not a secret alias e.g. “Richard Bachman”. It’s a side project and a performing name/persona.
The site is set to update with new content every Tuesday right now. Please check it out and tell me what you think! If you do happen to enjoy the new content, also please share it around.